Determination is key while car camping in Sweden. Luckily for you, I made a lot of mistakes and created this guide so you can avoid them.
What is Allemansrätten ?
I spent nearly a week wild camping in Sweden thanks to allemansrätten which loosely translates to freedom to roam.
This Swedish law allows people to hike, camp, and pick berries/mushrooms on both public and private land.
Sounds easy right? Wrong. Especially if you’re taking a car with you.
This trip was not apart of my plans at all- however a German friend convinced me to do this trip since they already had a car and camping equipment for us to use. Our ride was a 2009 Volkswagen Passat- not the greatest for an off road camping adventures but it did it’s job- the fact that it’s a hatchback made it way easier to stuff all of our food and camping equipment.
Arriving to Sweden by Car from Denmark
We took a ferry to Sweden from Helsingør, Denmark to Helsingborg, Sweden. I would not recommend the ferry option as it takes longer and is a bit more expensive than taking the underground tunnel/bridge option from Copenhagen (København) to Malmö.
How to Find a Wild Camping area
Find the perfect wild camping spots took us at least a couple of hours each day. Mainly- because we did not know of the app iOverlander at the time.
We were quite picky in finding the ideal spots for camping. We wanted a place with a view, privacy, and of course accessible by car (we did not want to carry all of our camping equipment more than a few meters).
Trying to find a place along the coast is difficult because there are so many small villages and homes scattered throughout the coastline. Using Google Maps satellite view became our saving grace. From here we were able to scope out potential areas by finding roads that seemed to have dead ends.
Our first night camping turned out to be the best night camping. We ended up finding an in an enclosed area on the beach that was created for wild campers. It even had a water pump, a wind shelter, and a toilet. The meadow next door had horses galloping through it and in the morning I woke up to sheep baaing.
To find this area simply copy and paste the coordinates or the plus code coordinates into your Google Maps.
Coordinates: (56.3380579, 12.7457486)
Plus Code: 8PQW+67 Båstad V, Sweden
Vänersborg was our next wild camping spot. It did not have any amenities but we were able to find a spot right next to the lake. The coast guard was also doing some exercises on the dock nearby but left early in the morning, we received a lot of inquisitive looks from the crew but they did not approach us or tell us to leave.
Coordinates: (58.3912230, 12.3122170)
Plus Code: 98R6+FV Vänersborg N, Sweden
Lyrestad was a neat spot. We found it by driving down an abandoned road. We pitched our tent right next to the river. During the day a few boats and ships would pass by every hour (once an hour the bridge raises to allow traffic to travel though). We received many interesting looks as well as waves and hellos from passenger.
The water seemed clean so I went down the ravine to rinse our vegetables in the river (I posted this on my Instagram story) . However, I must caution you that this is the area that I woke up to with a very full tick attached to my knee. Ticks are common in Sweden and they do carry Lyme disease as well as tick borne encephalitis- be sure to tuck your pants into your socks. I didn’t learn my lesson and continued to wear shorts throughout my trip. I got bit a few times by ticks and multiple times by mosquitoes during this trip- so do as I say not as I do.
Coordinates: (58.7958631, 14.0620467)
Plus Code: Q3W6+8R Mariestad Ö, Sweden
Nyköping was our next wild camping spot. We had a lot of difficulties finding an area to wild camp here as there are so many homes. We spent about 4 or 5 hours driving around aimlessly looking for a spot before driving on an abandoned road that led to us here. It was all worth it.
This spot was great- it even seemed like someone before us had camped there because we found the remnants of someone’s camp fire.
After we set up our campsite and began preparing dinner a preteen girl came by walking her friendly Lhasa Apso. We chatted for a bit. An hour or so later two fishermen stopped by and fished for a couple of hours, they greeted us when they arrived and said good bye when they left. They did not seem annoyed by our presence – only curious.
Coordinates: (58.8253880, 16.9276360)
Plus Code: RWGH+53 Nyköping NV, Sweden
Norrköping was our final wild camping destination. It was situated near a highway so we parked the Passat in a way to give us some privacy from the motorist. The building is a bit spooky as it has been ransacked and abandoned. There was also a freakish amount of large snails and slugs so be careful you don’t accidentally smush them!
Coordinates: (58.5895338, 16.1297767)
Plus Code: H4QH+RW Norrköping, Sweden
Wild Camping Equipment Used
Quechua Waterproof Pop Up Camping Tent
Portable Camping Stove
We used this camping stove for breakfast and dinner. It’s very durable and we were able to make literally everything on it from boiling water to cooking steak. It’s very easy to connect and disconnect the gas canister to it. It was even able to hold a cast iron stove.
- Stackable Cookware Set
- This cookware set works great. We used it for all of our meals. The cookware all nestle together in a mesh bag to be conveniently stored.
Tips:
- Always, always, always leave no trace.
- Try typing in ‘wind shelter‘ on Google Maps, these areas are typically great for wild camping.
- It was impossible for us to find a wild camping spot near Stockholm. It seems that they discourage this as much as possible and have many ‘no camping’ signs in the surrounding area.
- Be careful where you camp- on nature preserves you are only allowed to camp on designated camping sites. We found these areas to be unreachable by car unless you’re okay with carrying all of your gear for a few kilometers. We didn’t feel comfortable leaving our car unattended for so many hours in a parking lot.
Conflicts with Locals:
Locals may get upset and scold you for camping. This only happened to us once – I’m not including the coordinates to this area because they were quite aggressive in scolding us even though we were in a proper area for wild camping. Luckily it was in the morning and we were just finishing up packing up our things. Even though they saw we were leaving and after I apologized multiple times they wouldn’t stop ranting about not camping in this area. This was my only negative encounter with the Swedes while wild camping.